In the days following Tiger Woods’ apology speech to his wife, family, friends and the public, I have sat and thought about other athletes and the poor choices they have made over the past few years. After thinking about several different situations across all of the major leagues, I feel that it is time for all of “the leagues” to go back to the drawing board and fix their codes of conduct to send a message that this inappropriate and immature behavior will not be tolerated.

NHL star and recent gold medalist Dany Heatley, of the San Jose Sharks, was arrested and charged with felony vehicular homicide and reckless driving for driving his car at excessive speeds in a 35-mile-per-hour zone. This car accident led to the death of Heatley’s teammate, Dan Snyder. However, Heatley was offered a plea deal from the district attorney of Fulton County, GA, which merely required him to serve three years probation and receive a $3,000 fine.  Before the plea was reached and case was settled, Heatley was back on the ice and competing again.

Then there’s the NFL. The first name that comes to mind is Adam “Pacman” Jones, who was suspended for an entire season by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. This suspension stemmed from several off the field incidents that violated the league’s player-conduct policy and were determined to be of a severe nature by the commissioner. Upon reinstatement Jones was suspended again for his off-the-field actions, and no longer plays in the NFL.

Goodell has taken a similar stance with Donte Stallworth, of the Cleveland Browns, by suspending the wide receiver for the entire season because of his DUI manslaughter charge. Stallworth served just a month in jail for accidentally killing someone while intoxicated. After Stallworth served his suspension, commissioner Goodell reinstated him for the 2010 season. Goodell said he will not hesitate to impose further suspensions if Stallworth does not clean up his act, but it’s hard to argue that justice has been served.

When the NBA was forced to suspend Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas for bringing a gun into the team locker room, that was something that needed to be addressed. Since then, Arenas is facing criminal charges and might never play in the league again. Yet he has claimed in interviews since then that he wants to work to be a better role model and restore his image. Other NBA players who repeatedly have acted inappropriately are Ron Artest and Latrelle Sprewell.

After looking at the problems athletes have had off the field, people can see how Tiger Woods is just the next athlete whose actions away from the game have tainted his image in the eye of the public. After he stood up there in a somber tone and asked for us all to “believe in him again” I am skeptical to do so.

What message is being sent by these athletes to people all across the country when they can break the law and, because of their money and status, see minimal jail time, if any, and be welcomed back to their lavish lifestyle making millions of dollars within months? These individuals have been given tremendous physical gifts that most of us would love to have, yet they continue to put themselves and others close to them in harm’s way with poor decisions.

In the past few years, we have seen a St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Josh Hancock, and Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry killed because of poor decisions that were made.  How many more tragedies must these leagues and athletes see before they start conducting themselves more professionally and valuing their gifts?